Retargeting - Marketing That Avigilon and Dropcam Does But Axis Misses

Author: John Honovich, Published on Apr 22, 2014

This is the technique that two of the fastest growing companies in surveillance use, but most incumbents miss.

It offers incredible low cost plus high quality targeting that no other historical option has ever provided.

Indeed, IPVM has been using it as well to drive many new members and radically increasing our brand awareness to more than 10,000+ surveillance professionals for just hundreds of dollars.

Inside, our 11 minute video screencast and explanation will let help integrators, distributors and manufacturers, to take advantage of this immediately.

The technique is retargeting. And more than 80% of video surveillance manufacturers we surveyed are not using. Plus, many had never heard of it.

Retargeting 101

Retargeting shows advertisements to people who have visited your website on other websites. Equally importantly, you can custom tailor the ads to match what those visitors viewed on your page. For example, show ads about encoders on sites like NFL.com and BBC.com to visitors who looked at pages on one's site about encoders.

Here is what a few ads look like. First, IPVM on the NFL.com:

And here's Dropcam on the BBC.com:

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And IPVM on the BBC.com:

Retargeting Explained

Please watch at least the first 3 minutes of this 11 minute explanation video to get a sense of how to use retargeting:

Oh, and there is a bonus at the end of the video above for those of you interested in advertising on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Everyone Should Do It

Anyone who sells anything in security or surveillance, even small integrators or independent consultants should use retargeting.

First of all, it is incredibly inexpensive. Let's say you only have 1,000 people come to your site each month. You can show an average of 20 ads to each person, totaling 20,000 impressions, for just $50 per month. $50 is equal to 1 hour or less of most professional's time so it's an expense that is hard to beat.

Secondly, you generate a lot more awareness. That keeps you top of mind to those people, without having to email them, write anything new, or have them come back to your site. Plus, you can offer them special promotions or news about what you are doing. For example, we have had at least a dozen people that we did not know mention our ads in correspondence with us. Certainly, there are 10x or more people with the same impact that we have not corresponded.

98% Less Expensive Than Trade Mags

In the past, seemingly the 'only' option was trade magazines that charged ~$5,000 for a 1 page ad with a circulation of ~30,000 copies. With retargeting, that same $5,000 delivers 2.5 million ad impressions (compared to 30,000 copies) and, even at a conservative/low 0.1% click through rate, 2,500 visitors to one's site. Plus, you can start in far smaller chunks and do it automatically online.

Limits - Getting Visitors In the First Place

The main limitation of retargeting is that one needs to have visitors to their website in the first place. It is great maximizing awareness from them but does not address people who do not know or never come to one's site.

However, Facebook (yes, Facebook, even for surveillance), LinkedIn and Twitter are attractive options for exposing one's offerings to new people. More on that in a later post.

Update 2018 - Downsides of Overdoing It

Over the last few years, retargeting has become more common but it has also exposed risks with it. Advertising that are aggressive with retargeting can leave their targets feeling stalked by dozens of ads per day following the target across numerous sites on the Internet. While that may be good for driving short term revenue, it could cause some people to be turned off, especially given increasing privacy concerns.

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The world's leading video surveillance information source, IPVM provides the best reporting, testing and training for 10,000+ members globally. Dedicated to independent and objective information, we uniquely refuse any and all advertisements, sponsorship and consulting from manufacturers.

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The world's leading video surveillance information source, IPVM provides the best reporting, testing and training for 10,000+ members globally. Dedicated to independent and objective information, we uniquely refuse any and all advertisements, sponsorship and consulting from manufacturers.